Background: To be able to meet social harmony in a continuously globalizing world, intercultural competencies are important to possess as an individual. Thus, it is also important for Certified Prosthetists and Orthotists (CPOs) and other health care providers since they meet many diversities in connection to their work. Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate Danish CPOs’ experience and perception of their intercultural competencies in the treatment of immigrants. Method: This study is a qualitative interview study using a phenomenological approach. Semi-structured interviews are used to collect the data from five CPOs working in Danish clinics. A content analysis, with an inductive approach, is used for the analysis. Findings: From the analysis of the participant interviews, seven sub-categories were found and further divided into three categories: Treatment, work environment, and development of competencies. These contribute to describe the main category and the aim of this study. Conclusion: The Danish CPOs, who participated in this study, experienced that they did not treat immigrants differently than non-immigrants. However, they experienced that some challenges could be connected to the treatment of immigrants, such as communication difficulties, but they all had a perception, that they used specific tools and strategies to accommodate these challenges. Furthermore, they all experienced that their intercultural competencies had improved with experience, but most of them were also interested in further development of their competencies.

Background: Following a stroke the ability to walk is often impaired due to compromised motor-control, muscle weakness and spasticity, resulting in deviations during gait. Ankle-foot orthoses (AFO) can be used for people with hemiparesis to improve stability during stance phase and clearance during swing phase. There has been much discussion whether AFOs have a positive effect during early rehabilitation post stroke (in this study defined as six weeks from the initial stroke onset).Objectives: The aim was to describe the level of involvement of Danish Certified Prosthetists and Orthotists (CPO) in early rehabilitation of stroke patients in Denmark, and to describe danish orthotists view on their involvement in early rehabilitation of stroke patients.Method: A cross-sectional survey, in form of a self-administered questionnaire, was conducted during March and April 2021 in Denmark. The survey was sent to Danish CPOs who were currently members of the Danish professional organization for prosthetists/orthotists. A total of 110 members received the questionnaire by e-mail, 80 of which were registered as certified. The questionnaire consisted of 43 items (of which a minimum of 26 questions needed answering) with mainly closed ended questions. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis, with frequencies, percentage and summarizing tables.Results: The response rate was 31.25 % (n=25). The survey demonstrated that only few participants (n=3) were involved in early gait rehabilitation, stroke patients were seen as out-patients in orthotic clinics (92%, n=23), usually 4–6-month post stoke (44%, n=11) and often with a referral from another member of the multidisciplinary team (MDT) (56%, n=14). Danish CPOs believed that orthotic assessment was an essential part of gait re-education (80% n=20), and that the orthotist should be part of the early gait rehabilitation (88%, n=22). Most of the orthotists (72%, n=18) were confident in recommending a treatment plan including lower extremity orthosis and were confident in advising the multidisciplinary team (MDT) in the use of orthosis (80%, n=20).Conclusion: It is uncommon for danish CPOs to be involved in the early rehabilitation of stroke patients and the Danish CPOs often first meet the patient late in the rehabilitation process. The CPOs believe that they should be part of early gait rehabilitation and that orthotic assessment should be part of gait re-education.

Background: Meeting the prosthetists needs, and barriers is important to successful implement evidence into practice. Thus, several implementation methods have been initiated, the authors saw a need to create a Communication Tool based on evidence from transfemoral socket designs, to ease the process of assisting prosthetists in facilitating evidential reasoning.   Aim: To investigate if a Communication Tool can facilitate the usage of evidence into practice by assisting the clinical decision making.  Method: The study is divided into two parts. First the development of the Communication Tool, which is based on the Knowledge to Action model plus an update of studies from a systematic review by Brodie et al.2021. The second part consists of a qualitative pilot-study using semi-structured synchronously interviews to collect data from two Danish working prosthetists. For the analysis a conventional content analysis with an inductive approach was used.  Findings: Findings from the analysis of the interviews compiled eight categories and twenty-five sub-categories covering three key themes identified during the creation of the Communication Tool: Barriers, internal usability, and external usability of the Communication Tool.   Conclusion: The Communication Tool showed to be an effective method to assist and facilitate evidence-based reasonings. The participants found the tool to be useful and appraised positively regarding communicating relevant content an easy to navigate in. Minor improvements are needed, which are related to the quality assessment system and the system of reference as well as some linguistic formulations.